Beginning Selenium WebDriver Testing in Python

This video will show how Selenium works underneath the hood. We will take a look at how we can use WebDriver to automate a browser’s native functionality.

   •  Understand the WebDriver Architecture

   •  Use language bindings, drivers and browsers

   •  Automate a browser using WebDriver

Web applications can often behave differently across browsers. Selenium offers a way to test against a number of specific browsers. This video will show you how to use them.

   •  Automate different browsers

   •  Explore the available drivers

   •  Configure a driver

In this video, we will see how can we make a browser visit a web page. This can be done quite easily a simple WebDriver command.

   •  Retrieve a web page

   •  Use WebDriver’s get method

   •  Automate a browser to visit a given URL

Let’s write automation code that will let us perform basic actions on a web page. In this video, we will get our first look at WebDriver’s locator actions.

   •  Perform actions on a web page using Python

   •  Visit the Google home page with Python

   •  Automate a Google search using Python

There are numerous different ways to locate elements on a web page, but which is the best method? We will show examples of how and when to use various locator types to find elements on a web page.

   •  Implement random Wikipedia search

   •  Create some Python locators

   •  Locate web elements using our locator classes

We can make our code more robust by creating locators using some of WebDriver’s classes.

   •  We can locate various web elements using various methods

   •  Use CSS Selectors, Name, Tag Name and Link Text Locators

   •  Implement locators for our Wikipedia example

Some web elements are nestled deep in the HTML page structure. WebDriver allows us to target these elements using XML paths aka XPaths.

   •  Locating hard-to-reach elements

   •  Using XPath tools

   •  Creating an XPath locator

What is a real-life system that needs testing? Let's start with a common example: authentication. We all know how logging in to a site works. Let’s use that knowledge and test a basic authentication system.

   •  Test a successful login

   •  Test a login failure

   •  Discover repeated steps for both tests

We have a high-level outline of how our authentication system should work. How can we describe this behavior in our code? We will show you how to test the system using Python and WebDriver.

   •  Run an authentication server

   •  Manually test how the application behaves

   •  Create a rough outline of testing steps in Python

There are a number of important web elements that need to be targeted in our automated tests. We will inspect the page and figure out how to target all of the essential elements.

   •  Inspect the HTML markup for the authentication system

   •  Discover how to target various key web elements

   •  Create locators for each web element in Python

We have all our test steps automated and all web elements located. Now, how do we clean up our tests so that we can run them easily? We will show you how to use a simple Python framework that makes testing very simple.

   •  Automate our tests using a Python framework

   •  Using the unit test framework

   •  Update automation code to use the Python unit test framework

How can we run our tests in a repeatable way? We will discuss the various parts that make up a test suite.

   •  Understanding a test framework

   •  Test fixtures, cases and suites

   •  Using a test runner

Now that we have a working example, we will explore using a further level of abstraction by using Page Objects. This will help us create our own test framework for our authentication system.

   •  Basic overview of the Page Object pattern

   •  Create a Page Object for the BrowserDriver

   •  Create a Page Object for the LoginPage

Now that we have seen how to test a small application, we will discuss how you can continue your journey of test automation using Selenium WebDriver.

   •  Quick review of Selenium WebDriver

   •  Integrate with various Python test frameworks

   •  Run headless tests using PhantomJS

We will wrap up everything we learned in the course with a quick overview of Selenium and talk about what to work on next.

   •  Think how to model manual tests in Python code

   •  Automate tests using WebDriver

   •  Practice using real-world examples